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Lord of the Rings was never written as a trilogy. When it was published, there was a paper shortage. For economic reasons the story was publish as 3 books instead of one. Though called a fantasy, Tolkien wrote the story as if it was an actual history of a time long forgotten. This approach gave the story tremendous depth and richness. Peter Jackson chose to film it as one story instead as a trilogy, which was Tolkien's original intent had the publishers allowed him too. Peter Jackson also chose to film it as if it was an actual history, rather than a fantasy, just like Tolkien did in writing it. This, I believe, helped make the movies so successful. It was also the reason all three movies reflected that same depth, and richness. All three movies had the same quality, which is usually not find in trilogies.
Tolkien story with the editor snd the division of the books is a bit funny. Initially, they wanted to publish it as 7 books I believe, to which Tolkien protested, and they cut it down to 3. The book titles also were not chosen by him: Tolkien admitted not knowing which were the exact Two Towers, and he disliked Return of the King for being a spoiler and he would prefered the title War of the Ring
@@stephenlaing2152 Yeah but his family also tried to make money off the unfinished cliff notes version of The Silmarillion that Tolkien did not think was anywhere near close to finished. Tolkien was a very interesting writer when it came to The Lord Of The Rings. He had no formal writing experience and didn't know how to properly plan a story or write and rewrite parts. As such, he would write his entire story from start to finish in order, and whenever he came into a roadblock or wrote himself into a corner, he would throw the whole story out and start again until it was completed
@@stephenlaing2152 No the OP is correct in that it was right after world war 2 and there was a paper shortage. This was a financial decision because they COULD have released it as one huge tome but it would have been so exorbitantly expensive at the time that no one could have afforded to buy it and we all would have lost something for that. This is explicitly stated in the extended edition extra discs from the publisher.
@@Lordgrayson Yup one of the guys in the extras discs likened his writing approach to waves coming on to a beach. Each would get a bit farther but it would return all the way back to the start.
I was too young to have witnessed the original STAR WARS trilogy. But I was exactly the right age for The Lord of the Rings trilogy. And, by God, it was epic!
I can't consider myself #1 Tolkien fan, but it brings literal tears to my eyes, knowing these movies exist. What an impossible task to make such a timeless masterpiece. It's just insane.
I genuinely wish they didn't. There are so many thematic inconsistencies, not to mention the decision to cut out the barrow-downs in the first movie is like a knife to the heart. It completely changes the whole meaning of their journey. They don't realise that any little change makes the themes slightly different, and with a world as complex as Tolkien's, attempting an adaptation is an exercise in futility. Most people will never read the book, they will only see the films, and they will come away with half of the half of the half of his world. I'm glad for the people who FOUND Tolkien through the films... But I know that those are very few, sadly.
@@Midorikonokami Awww, the film wasn't a one to one recreation of the books. Unlucky. Some of us are able to understand that the books are unfilmable. 10 different directors will have 10 different versions. The ones that cover the bits you are whinging about will skip other bits. The fact you are unable to step back and see the films as a highlights reel is quite sad. I love the books and I love the films. After the disaster that was Rings of Power, these films look even better.
@@Midorikonokami There were always going to be changes to the source material to be able to make it filmable. What the movie needed to do was respect Tolkien and his vision, have the main themes flow throughout the movie, and bring the world of Middle Earth to life in a believable way. I think they did a great job in achieving that. I'm ok with certain things being cut to make it flow better as a movie.
@@Midorikonokami I hear you, and I know many Tolkien readers who might agree with you. But I have read the LOTR books long before the movies were made, and I loved them. But I ended up loving the movies, too! While I didn't like all of Peter Jackson's choices, I felt that he has created a fully believable version of Middle Earth with all it's big and small magical creatures, which I could fully embrace. And some of his casting choices have been brilliant. I cannot imagine a better Gandalf than Sir Ian McKellen. And Andy Serkis and motion capture created a wonderful Gollum whom we could hate, pity, laugh at, and even love very deep down in our souls. Gollum felt like a real person with a heart and a soul . And the movies have aged incredibly well. Twenty years later they still look great, and younger generations of viewers can still embrace them. I just wish that these younger viewers will eventually read the books, too! Too many of them don't - and they don't know that they are missing a great experience!
I think The Lord of the Rings Trilogy is one of those rare examples in history in which the executives of the studio actually didn't hinder the creative development of a product. Props should be given to them for actually doing the right thing and giving Jackson the time he needed. It's a great example of what can happen when even the higher-ups believe in the product on an artistic level.
@@RevanReborn3950BBY they could have done the same with tLofR but no, they had to have pj's abysmal trilogy. If you enjoyed tLotR how can you not enjoy The Hobbit trilogy? It's the exact same paradigm *except* he was truer to the book than he was with tLotR.
@@KeldorDAntrell wtf are you on? Are we both talking about the two trilogies directed by Peter Jackson, and the LOTR books and the Hobbit? There is 10 times more stuff going on in the LOTR than in the Hobbit, and the LOTR movies are much more faithful. Yes there are issues with the movies, but overall it conveys the important themes and messages of the books in a very faithful way, while the Hobbit trilogy is almost as bad as ROP, only better because there wasn’t willful ignorance as opposed to being put in a shit situation by the studio
One of the things that distinguishes Tolkien's fantasy is the depth of his characterizations. It's clear that he knew the complete biography of every character - no matter how minor. The result is that Middle Earth as a whole is much more convincing.
I can't remember precisely, but isn't George RR Martin another author like that? I seem to recall that he has like multiple generations worth of a family tree for every character, and lots of the minor ones as well. Where they were from. What means their family had. Do they have friends or rivals? Were they in any wars? It's a super complicated approach, but it makes their stories feel like slices of history!
@@2leftframes I dont think so. Martin describes it like that: “I think there are two types of writers, the architects and the gardeners. The architects plan everything ahead of time, like an architect building a house. They know how many rooms are going to be in the house, what kind of roof they're going to have, where the wires are going to run, what kind of plumbing there's going to be. They have the whole thing designed and blueprinted out before they even nail the first board up. The gardeners dig a hole, drop in a seed and water it. They kind of know what seed it is, they know if planted a fantasy seed or mystery seed or whatever. But as the plant comes up and they water it, they don't know how many branches it's going to have, they find out as it grows. And I'm much more a gardener than an architect.”
@@stylefreak2344 Very interesting! It's always cool to hear different writers talk about their styles :) I especially loved the discussion between Stephen King and George RR Martin from a while back on productivity. Thanks for sharing!!
@@stylefreak2344 Gardeners vs Architects is a distinction that's commonly used to refer to how one writes plot/story. GRRM is absolutely a gardener, bit the reason it works so well for him is because his characters are written to a ridiculously high degree. To use the gardener analogy, if the garden is the plot being left to grow on its own, then everything from the seeds to the soil are what writers like GRRM and Tolkien refine to an incredibly high level of detail. It's what makes plot feel so natural because while the characters actions aren't necessarily planned and micromanaged, their individual histories influence their choices in a way that feels real and human
When I was a kid, Star Wars was THE fabtasy series that meant the most to me. Im 36 now and over the last decade i have realized that LOTR means more and more to me the older I get.
Same here! Truth be told, George Lucas spoiled Star Wars with me when he deemed the Special Editions as the “official versions” and forbade the release of the non-Special Editions from ever happening again.
I saw the animated version at the cinema in 1978 age 11. I read LOTR in 1983. The same year i caddied for Christopher Lee at Gleneagles Hotel for two days while he was taking part in a Pro/Celebrity golf tournament. We talked books, movies and golf. Of course back then i was meeting Dracula. I still have the photo of us on the course, my smile is a mile wide.
@@2leftframes Thanks for the reply. Yeh he was pretty good. I stood and watched him while he was on the driving range practicing before we went out on the course. The mists of time and all that but i remember meeting Sean Connery, George c Scott ( who wouldn't sign my autograph book), Formula One legend Jame Hunt and several UK TV stars.
I'm now being told to watch this for a school assignment. Your channel has made it to the point where university professors are using it to help people teach leadership in an online class that never meets in person.
Greatest cinematic masterpiece to ever hit the big screen. The extended DVD collection surpasses all expectations. How lucky are we to be alive when the LOTR trilogy was released. Unforgettable time and I cherish my collection and watch it all once every year.
Peter Jackson said so himself that the undertaking of making the Lord of the Rings trilogy was a task of such Herculean effort, he didn't ever want to try doing something like that ever again. Plus, he's aged considerably when making The Hobbit, which understandably makes him more tired. Don't underestimate what difference one decade makes when you're past 40.
i dont think Jackson could again, he put 100% of pure passion into it, he is not that passionate to the level of LOTR with anything else so it would be hard for him to find that same level of passion out.
The main issue is that Peter Jackson is more interested in fanciful over the top action sequences that the story, and he's so far gone he can't make a compelling movie anymore. You.can see this slide as the LOTR movies progress. Then even moreso in King Kong, and then the Hobbit trilogy
We truly may never see this kind of thing again. It was such a long shot in terms of being made and it ended up in the absolutely perfect hands. It's just hard to find people that actually love the source material they are adapting to this degree anymore. All the money in the world won't replace creators that truly love what they are doing and are willing to give everything for it. This video hit on that. The time everyone (and I mean everyone involved) spent on these movies is colossal. They lived this experience in a way that productions today would never dream of asking. Not to pick on superhero movies. But today you can barely get any of those actors to put on makeup or wear real helmets. It's all just CGI. And LOTR was in a sweet spot where CGI was good enough to support the film making process without being a crutch that would be leaned on too heavily. These will be some of the best movies ever made. And no one can take that away from everyone involved in making it.
Look at fucking Halo. The staff behind the series were genuinely retarded. They wante dto make their own corny series instead, and had zero respect for the source material. Tolkein did the character development/history/lore approach to writing a story, that Halo and the Clone Wars are known for now. I think Christopher Nolan might be making a clone wars movie according to rumours. But damn it would be sick seeing a properly done Halo movie.
I saw all 3 in theaters. The first one came out when I was 6 years old and I was allowed to see them. It was amazing and I was instantly hooked and became obsessed
The trilogy stands and likely will forevermore stand as the pinnacle of what films can be in terms of scope and scale. It’s simply the perfect trilogy.
@@dizzydazed8055Shouldnt be anything wrong with it, given LOTR's historical/mythological influences. At the time people could just accept that fact and be okay with it. Now people will get upset. Crazy world we live in today lol.
I think it's a bit odd to say that Peter Jackson "purposely excluded" Gollum from the first movie because the CGI tech wasn't quite advanced enough to portray him yet. Wasn't that more fundamentally because of the source material? Gollum himself doesn't actually make an appearance in the *novel* The Fellowship of the Ring, either. He's referred to repeatedly by Gandalf, Frodo, Aragorn, and to a lesser extent Legolas; but he doesn't show up in person until the second novel, The Two Towers. That was reason enough for Jackson to leave Gollum mostly out of the first movie.
It certainly wasn't difficult to omit him from the first movie. I believe the plan was only ever to tease his presence? But the hadn't nailed down the motion capture yet. So even in that small tease, it's a different character model, without any performance capture, fully obscured by shadows. It's totally effective! It was an excellent creative decision that gave them an additional year to perfect everything they wanted to achieve before a proper reveal of the character. So the technical limitation, and storytelling worked in their favor. But it was still a purposeful choice to not show anything before it felt ready to be shown.
But Gollum was in the first movie, albeit very briefly. When they're in the mines of Moria, he's following them, and Gandalf points it out to Frodo. It shows a closeup of Gollum's eyes.
Also Andy Serkis hadn’t been cast yet when filming started. He was originally cast just for his voice, but soon took over the role and embodied the performance of Golem.
I watched The Fellowship of the Ring and The Return of the King Extended Editions in movie theaters recently when they released the 20th Anniversary of the 3rd film. Let me say this, no other film comes near The Lord of the Rings. It will forever be my greatest movie watching experience or until another can challenge it (Avengers Endgame got knocked down). Watched it with my brother and the other 60-90 people that went as well. Loved it so much going to watch it for a second time before they remove it from theaters. Rich characters and storytelling that will forever remain relevant.
@@2leftframes I don't want to gloat or anything, but about a month ago I went to a theater screening of the TLOTR Trilogy in Los Angeles. All day Saturday from 10am to 1130pm. They showed the extended versions of Fellowship and The Two Towers. Unfortunately, The Return of the King was the theatrical release since they were only showing the films on 35mm print and they never made The Return of the King Extended Edition on 35mm, but was still a fantastic showing. The organizer of the screenings said that 500 people had purchased all day passes (myself included). All those people, in one theater, all sharing that same experience will go down as my most memorable and enjoyable movie watching experience... or until they do another marathon, maybe next year.
i was obsessed with waiting until Two Towers and ROTK came out (i casually went to see Fellowship with a friend, thinking it was going to be an "ok" movie, man i was wrong). i remember in class bugging my friend who had read the books already describe what happens in the following movies, When he said a ghost army was in the movies, i couldnt wait the years to see that play out
Avengers Endgame i don't even consider it as Masterpiece. Hate to compare it But the 1st three LOTR trilogy is absolutely a MASTERPIECE!!! It's just in another level that we may or may not see until another 20,30 or 40 years to come But won't happen everytime or usual. That's why it's very special.
I love everything about L.O.T.R., the books, movies, behind scenes, actors, music, P. Jackson, the whole crew of people, their love, passion, craft, art, intelligence, creativity, originality, faith, joy, everything. I agree, that possibly something like this miracle will never happen again. I watched this trilogy many times, first in the theatre, later the extended movies. Last time I rewatched this trilogy was yesterday. Since I've watched the extended films 20 years ago for the first time, I am not able to watch the shorter ones. But I liked the Hobbit trilogy too. Much more than the book. I love all Tolkien's books and his fantasy world. So I appreciate Your video.
I have seen this trilogy once. And saw it immediately for the masterpiece that it is. I truly thought people were just hyping it up but no. Everyone was dead serious and it is phenomenal. Inspired me to actually get the books and give them a read once I finish the series I’m currently on and I’m incredibly excited
I've long felt that The Lord of the Rings movies are the crowning achievement in cinema history, and you've done a pretty good job of capturing most of the reasons why. I especially appreciate the section on CGI, I completely agree that these movies came along at exactly the right time in terms of CGI development. They simply wouldn't have been possible without CGI, but the fact that the CGI was still somewhat limited and definitely expensive and time consuming forced them to stick with practical effects as much as possible. I'm not even sure it's impossible to make a similarly good movie with more extensive use of CGI. But I'm hard pressed to think of anyone in the years since these movies came out who's managed to avoid the temptation to use it to create scenes that aren't just impractical to physically film, but which are really physically impossible in ways that go beyond the requirements of the setting and story. I agree with Vigo that too much of this even crept into The Lord of the Rings movies as they went along - it's little enough that I can overlook it, but it's definitely there. I also think that you actually underplayed the near impossibility of getting financing for set of movies like this. The whole project very nearly fell apart when the original studio (Miramax?) got cold feet and started insisting on cutting it from two movies to one, but even at two movies it wouldn't have been anywhere near the same thing as what we eventually got. While the movies as made are far from completely faithful to the original with major changes to important characters like Aragorn and the complete elimination of whole parts of the story like Tom Bombadill and the scouring of the Shire, if the things I've heard about the plans for the two movie plot are true I'm not sure it would still have really counted as an adaptation of Tolkien's story. It would still undoubtedly be fair to say that it was inspired by The Lord of the Rings, and it might still have been a very good couple of movies, but it wouldn't really have been the same story. I think the NewLine head who insisted on expanding it to three movies doesn't get as much credit for the resulting triumph as he deserves.
I don't think they're the greatest films ever made, since they don't add anything to the books. They actually take away from them a bit, since they're made to sell toys and they have action scenes, which takes away a lot of authenticity.
@@Siegfried5846 ...so basically what you're saying is that Lotr is not the best book adaptaition ever made. Covering all of the origin(al) is not in the definition of what's a good movie and not covering it all doesn't make it a bad movie, otherwise all movies based on books would be bad movies, because (as far as I know) there is no movie that is exactly like the book. On top of that, if they added anything to the original, people would start saying that they took too much creative liberty and abused the original. On a different note: yours circular reasoning. Just because they make money from selling toys, doesn't mean that's the reason for why they made the movie in the first place. You want to make money from a movie, yes, especially from an epic like Lotr, because it sells well and because you have to cover the costs of such an enormous undertaking somehow. And relying only on sold copies and tickets is not only naive but also very stupid. There are movies ad/or TV series that were solely and specifically made to sell toys (basically all cartoons whose characters are being sold as toys by Mattel) but although I don't know for sure, because I can't look into the heads of the people responsible, I'm quite sure that Lotr isn't one of them and was never supposed to be.
@@Red80008 When I said that they take away from the books, I meant that they aren't as good as the books. They cheapen them quite like how they added modern dialogue and fully changed Frodo's personality. Furthermore, they go by way too quickly. Especially the bit in the beginning without Tom Bombadil. The toys wouldn't be a problem if the films weren't changed just so that they could sell toys. If you look at the character designs, they're all made to sell as many toys as possible, and it's quite sickening to me now that I watch them as an adult. They barely even look medieval, since that wouldn't sell enough. I do like the films, especially for the music. But the film makers' greed holds back the story. There's no denying that.
@@Siegfried5846 OH MY GOD, what would be the point of Tom Bombadil, he is fascinating yes, but he would literally be worthless to the story the movie was trying to tell, what about the barrow wights? you could say that because they didn't film that of that they wouldn't have the swords of Westernesse. As for the toys, "the only real effort at LOTR toys was made by Knickerbocker in 1979 to go with the ANIMATED film of the prior year. The line consisted of six figures and two horses: Aragorn, a riding Frodo, Samwise, Gandalf, a riding Ringwraith, and Gollum. The line ended after only nine (I cannot find the other 2) characters being produced around two and a half years after it began. The largest reason the line concluded was that Lord of the Rings was being made into a big-budget film trilogy shot together and scheduled for release during Christmas in 2001-2003, and the property was licensed to Toy Biz. Even though the Toy Vault line was based on the literary aspects of LOTR, it was felt that it would be best to end the line to avoid any confusion over the products." www.toymania.com/archives/metoys/metoyshistory.shtml that's my link to the only proof I could find of toys. edit: Wait also build a bear made some pretty far after the movies nerdist.com/article/new-lord-of-the-rings-plushies-build-a-bear/ . As for Frodo's personality change, that's because they didn't have a timeskip of 17 years which isn't really loyal to the book but quite minor, but what's REALLY bad about this argument is that your ALSO forgetting about when Samwise and Frodo experienced infighting for no reason over Gollum spilling bread over Gamgee, that's WAY dumber with a filler moment that didn't matter, that just wasted time, or how about when they decided not to add in the scene at the end of the book where the ring proclaimed at Gollum that if he touched it again, he would throw himself into the fire, that's how the ring was destroyed in the fire, not a deus ex machina of dumb luck where Gollum slipped, THAT'S a really good thing to criticize, there's a bunch to criticize about these masterpieces, but being made to sell toys, that's just terrible, also calling the filmmakers greedy is subjective, I guess maybe your right under that logic but whatever. By the way of course they were made in modern accents, this film had to make back half a million bucks, they wouldn't be some strange movies that only hipsters would like for being unpopular then hate for becoming main stream, like you. TLDR please give sources and have a better argument YOU HIPSTER WANNABE
@@Siegfried5846 Do you ever expect movie adaptations to be as expansive as any book? the nature of moving a book to a movie is "cheapening" it. It's what scenes and dialogue they keep and leave out what will make an adaptation good or bad, which is difficult as hell. I think LOTR did a great job on what would and wouldn't transfer well to film
What happened to Peter Jackson after the original trilogy was already predicted by Tolkien in the words of Fëanor to the Valar: 'For the less even as for the greater there is some deed that he may accomplish but once only; and in that deed his heart shall rest. It may be that I can unlock my jewels, but never again shall I make their like; and if I must break them, I shall break my heart, and I shall be slain; first of all the Eldar in Aman.'
Do you think the characters were done correctly? They weren’t. At all. Peter Jackson strikes me as a vapid, shallow man who had no idea how to adapt the characters to the big screen. One need only look at how contemptuously he treated Gimli. But, really, every character was mistreated.
@@kentl7228 If you like the film, fine. But none of the characters in the film are the ones in the books. I just can't like the films. I've tried. Also, try to not to excuse bad filmmaking just because no one has yet to do it better.
I had "Into the West" played at my mother's funeral in 2019 because just as there will never be movies like these again, there never will be another woman like her again.
Each time I finish this trilogy, I get a feeling of genuine sadness once its all over. Not just that this amazing trilogy is done. But just the feeling of...knowing that I won't go back to another film series that I will love so desperately as much as I love LOTR
I watched the extended movies and the appendices so many times my original box set wore out. This trilogy finally put Star Wars (IV, V, VI) into the #2 trilogy spot on my list. Very nice, I love this version of your original. I would hope that it finds it's way in front of all who watched the 1st version.
I hope so too! The worst part, is that due to an editing kerfuffle, I think this video rendered at much lower quality overall :( I hope that doesn't chase off too many potential viewers!
This is so bitter sweet. I was lucky to have witnessed all these movies in at the cinema. It is sad that kids don't get to see something as majestic as this.
This was a delightful essay on The LOTR trilogy. I broke into tears multiple times through the video. Howard Shore's study of two centuries of music was mind-boggling.
I was fortunate enough to watch them in the movie theaters as a kid, I agree at least for me this 3 movies are above anything else ever released or that will probably ever be released at least in our timelines. I loved watching those behind the scenes, and in school I was fortunate enough to have one of my teachers be a VFX animator from this movies, I asked and learned so much about this films that semester. I can only dream to one day be able to work or see anything that even comes close to these 3 masterpieces of film.
The moment I heard Galdriel's narration I was: Ugh another overly serious gantasy bs... then came the shots of the last alliance at Mount Doom... and I was in. Never will forget the awe I felt when the Balrog jumped into close up shot... or grief when Boromir died or tension when they gought in the Mazarbul chamber.... God and part3!!! Tears. Hate for Gollum and sheer feeling of revenge when the Rohirrim started their charge.... my god.
LOTR trilogy will remain my favourite movies, a true classic, not just the cinematography but beautiful music as well, on top of a great line of actors.
I think the biggest reason we'll never see something like this again is simply because of the time it was made in and how long it has been. Game of Thrones is the closest thing I can think of and even those books were written in the 90s and because they're still not done, it went off on its own and ended up disappointing. It's been decades, most things have been done, there's not much new ground to tread or trends to redefine, it's just a matter of how well it can be executed and you simply can't compete with novels with reputations like that. It would be incredibly hard for a brand new IP to come along and reach those heights. As monumental as GoT was, I still wouldn't say it is anywhere near as influential as Tolkien. You just can't compete with people that literally laid the groundwork of the entire genre. The same way we'll likely never have another rock/metal rebellion like Metallica, Pantera, DIO, and all of those guys, because times have changed and there's just not a lot of ground that hasn't already been covered. Things are established, there's nothing to really prove anymore so innovation is much harder, let alone doing it well. I can't think of anything modern outside of GoT and maybe Walking Dead that may be considered something that will last a very long time and influence future works. Doctor Who used to be like that until recently, hopefully it can turn itself around and Star Wars is a complete mess now.
You also have to factor in that Hollywood stopped giving a fuck about storytelling in favor of ideologies people frankly don’t agree with, which is they’re going to Asia for stories. Talk to any foreigner and they’ll be baffled at how much propaganda is on our Televisions and movie screens.
If there was a religion of LOTR, its believers would say their it was their Gods divine will the studio waited 438 days of pre production and 280 million dollars given to an unproven director, and it came out insanely well in the end, because what happened is nothing short of a miracle. I will cherish these movies until i die.
Special effects is an art both digital and practical. Personally, I love them both mixed together. They did not fail because of digital effects, they fail because of the lack of care and respect given to the effects them selves. If you look at movies like Avatar and Avatar 2 and the planet of the apes movies, you have a perfect example of how digital effects should be cared for and respected, not just some cheap after thought. I hate when I hear digital effects destroy movies when it is not true. Terrible production destroys movies.
Very good analysis, Sir! Your passion for these movies truly shines through in every part, and the quality of this video is on par with some of the best movie essay channels I know on RUclips. Would love to see more videos like this.
I went to the theaters each Christmas for each of these films, and I distinctly remember being so thoroughly blown away by the level of quality of everything. It was kind of surreal just how well it all came together.
When I was a kid and the movies were being released the DVD box sets that included the "making of" features were one of my most cherished possessions. It blew my mind that LOTR had things going on that didn't happen in other productions, because they seemed so obvious and added so much to the details which made the story visually so believable. Thing's like actor's, specifically Viggo Mortensen doing his own repairs to the Strider outfit as it wore throughout the fellowship's journey, just added so many little details that made it seem real. The plastic ring chainmail seemed like it should have become the standard for future movies. Actor's wearing actual armor and carrying real weapons and other items, when other movies struggle so much to make it look like their actors aren't dressed in plastic tubs The work that went into making LOTR visually real just makes shows like The Rings of Power seem like such half hearted attempts to cash in on the work of better people who cared more about their craft
I was fortunate enough to see these in the theaters as they came out as a young teenager and I will NEVER forget those experiences. They will always be my top 3 movies of all time, everything else I consider my "favorite" movie is just #4 and down. I didnt realize how spoiled I was at the time, but now I do. There will never be anything like that made again. Look at what is produced now in Hollywood. Souless, shallow cash grabs with no passion and no care.
Your enthusiasm is infectious. There's so much love and awe in your voice as you speak about these movies. Lord of the Rings is amazing but fantasy is such a varied genre, and I wish studios would pay more attention to it and stop running Middle-earth into the ground. Here are some books worth checking out and supporting, though I'm hardly scratching the surface: -The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie. This is "the next Game of Thrones" that studios are desperately looking for and it's being completely ignored. It's got stronger character work imo, it's grimdark with a cast of questionable protagonists, it's a well contained _complete_ trilogy, and it would be absolutely perfect for a three season show. -Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson. This is one of the few fantasy worlds that has exceeded the scope and detail of Middle-earth. The main series is ten huge books and they're all batshit insane, it's amazing. This might actually be too "out there" to be adapted but I think, with a lot of time and care, it could work. -Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe. Okay, this one is a book through and through and it's too weird to be adapted but it's amazing and I think more people should read it.
It makes me so happy that that can be felt and heard! It took a long time making videos to go from nervous monotone, to over-done "youtuber" voice, to finding a most natural cadence that is more like me at 101% haha. I'm overdoing my natural rhythms and intonations a hair for the sake of presentation. But there's still room for my own emotions to come through :) Thanks a million for the new recommendations!! I'll be slotting those into my goodreads asap!
@@2leftframes Oh I forgot about this comment haha. You're welcome, man. I recommend First Law to start off with, the other two can be kinda hard to get through lmao. But if you want to challenge yourself, they're extremely rewarding.
I have never, ever seen anything that comes even close to the Lord of the Rings films. These three movies are a true cinematic masterpiece. I truly don't see anything ever coming even close to the quality films, and I say that with much love and respect. The people who made LOTR have made something that will be timeless throughout human history that will (hopefully) be seen by generations years and years from even now. Lord of the Rings shows everything that is good about the human imagination and what can happen when humans come together to create something that is bigger than ourselves. I love movies but I get choked up when discussing LOTR. There is something special that really touches my very soul. I loved this video. It expresses in words far better than I ever could just how wonderful Lord of the Rings still is all these years later that feel as if they were only yesterday.
34:31 (lightning of the beacons) and 36:09 (the ceremony) just seeing those scene, not even hearing the music just gave me chills. I don’t even need the music. It’s in my mind. Heck even some of quotes from the book make me cry! I read the trilogy before I watched the movie. And there are some scenes from the book that weren’t in the movie that I wanted to be in there, but you can’t have everything. Some things are best left to your imagination
I really want to see your take on Rings of Power. Creators were given way more rope than Jackson ever had, and used it to hang themselves. Hiring Tolkien experts, then firing them when the experts did exactly what they were hired for, lying about the show, getting fake fans recite scripted awe in interviews, calling Tolkien fanbase "patently evil" and spending almost a billion dollars creating a show about a psychopatic mary sue, with script so ridden with beginner writer problems, so lacking in any basic qualities of a competent story it feels like a first fanfic written by a teenager who didn't even read or see LOTR.
My plan had been to watch Rings of Power on my own, then watch it again more critically. I think I watched 2 episodes, and just sort of forgot about it? I didn't hate it. But neither did I really care about what was happening. I should probably dust that off to give it another chance
@@2leftframes I got farther than you did, but I didn't make it to the end. I didn't think it was as horrible as some people did. No, it doesn't live up the the movies visually, but that's a pretty tough bar to meet even with the fairly large budget they had to work with and a lot of it was pretty good (visually). I started watching it with the expectation that it wouldn't really be Tolkien, and I was right about that. It really felt like they had set out to replicate everything they thought was especially popular in the movies whether it made sense for a second age story or not (and without any understanding of why they were popular). So we got Hobbits (er, I mean Harfoots) and Gandalf (er, I mean the Stranger) and Eowyn, but as even more of a girl boss (er, I mean Galadriel). Galadriel is probably the worst of these - the real Galadriel was around in the second age, but she was never a warrior. She was, on the other hand, known for her wisdom. So they turned her into an arrogant and rather stupid warrior woman and wrote her husband and daughter out of existence. Which means that there is no Arwen in the third age, sorry Aragorn. While all that was a big disappointment, I had decided in advance that I would try to give the non-Tolkien story a chance to win me over on its own merits. Unfortunately, the story was so full of holes and so many of the main characters were so unlikable that although there were a few parts that I enjoyed I lost interest long before the end. In general, it seemed like they took a similar approach to plotting to that which they had towards characterization. They had what they thought were cool scenes to build towards, and they didn't worry too much about making sure that any of them made any sense in and of themselves. They worried even less about finding a sensible way to get to them. I think I made it through 4 episodes before I gave up, but that was only because I wanted to make sure I'd given it a fair chance.
@@stephenlaing2152brave of you to walk in this comments section and claim that Jackson’s LotR is “crap.” Brave, and stupid, as that is a patently false statement by any measurement.
34:05 I'm, 8 months late but the answer is that the background OST for this video is from LotR: Battle for Middle Earth 2. Astonishing original soundtrack that somehow they managed to make it sound as if it was conducted by Howard Shore himself for the movie trilogy!
Over my life I have learned one thing. Regardless of how skilled an artist is (be it musician, director, painter etc.). His magnum opus never comes as a result of careful planning. It always comes from part preparation, part skill, part talent and sheer joy of creating art. But also there is always luck. Even those incredible artists who have many incredible pieces, usually still have 1-2 that just stand above the rest. For me that is the LotR trilogy. Not even Peter Jackson could replicate what he did on those films. And it's kind of insane to realize the films been filmed a couple of year earlier or later. We would most likely never get the blending of great practical effects with the use of CGI for important scenes.
The movies were my introduction to Middle Earth and eventually fantasy tabletop games, the trilogy is still my all time favourite. We love having an extended edition marathon every now and then
Talk about two birds with one stone. "We need about two thousand orc swords by next week!" "We need to film a montage scene of orcs crafting their crude weaponry!" Peter Jackson - "Why not both?" *shrugs shoulders*
I watched everything on the Extended Edition DVDs. And I mean literally EVERYTHING. Every film, every commentary on every film, and every single extra. I think I calculated that it was around 100 hours of material or something ridiculous like that (I can't remember, so that might be off a little). I consider it worthwhile because it's the closest I could have come to being part of the huge family of people who worked incessantly for years to bring us these stories. I feel almost as if I'd been there watching the process, and it's what I love most about cinema: the fact that it's the most massive, difficult collaboration anyone can undertake in the world of art. It shows what humans can do when they get together with a plan.
I still remember watching LOTR for the first time. I was around 10 years old so never heard of LOTR, my dad said "hey lets watch this new movie Lord of The Rings, its supposed to be good". By the time the movie was over my adrenaline was pumping from the last scene, I was entranced and was so disappointed that the movie ended. I was filled with so much wonderment at the world that I couldnt wait for the next movie to come. Funny you mention Dune because thats the only movie that was able to come close to giving me that feeling of wonder and intrigue that LOTR gave me as a kid, Dune didnt give me as an intense feeling of wonder like LOTR but it did come close. LOTR is a great time to look back on but it is sad knowing that we'll probably never see another movie as monumental and impactful as LOTR but im so freaking glad I was there for all of it. When The Hobbit came out I went to the theatre for first and second movie but it just didnt capture me like LOTR did, I actually fell asleep during both movies.
I never got to experience the lotr release because I was a child but leaving Dune it felt to me like I experienced something similar. The scale, the score the epicness of it all. Dune is a masterpiece, I hope the sequels can live up to it.
I listened to the books and watched these movies for the first time this year. I went back to watch your video on it aftwerwards, but am watching this one now too. While these movies don't mean a lot to me personally...I can appreciate the craftsmanship and work that went into these so much. In a comic I am reading, "Fables", there is this character Jack, from the fairytales. Since fame and being remebred translate to power and unkillability to the fairytale characters in that world, he goes to hollywood and makes a movie trilogy on the level of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings in that comic. However I always found that weird, and watching this video now it seems even more unlikely, that someone could just do that if they wanted to.
I'm glad my video helps give some perspective on the scale of this production :) I've also heard good things about Fables overall! Even if that one storylines seems rather farfetched ;)
This is one of those times where the passion of all involved brought out the best of everyone around them. Shore is a great example of this. Its hard to imagine he would have put so much effort into the soundtrack if he hadn't been blown away by Jacksons drive.
The Lord of the Rings movies were just soo awesome, I'm soo glad I managed to see them all at really nice cinemas and love going back to them every once in a while. You can really tell that they really gave it all and had a good budget to do it properly. Awesome video man
I have never heard a sound track affect the feeling of a movie as much as the LOTR sound track did. Every section of the movie, every people group involved had their own music. It was phenomenal. The best ever.
The forced perspective work in these movies is simply jaw-dropping. the complexity and engineering that went into such a simple aspect for a 2 second establishing shot that created so much depth and realism in the scene blows my mind. I wouldn't even know where to start. It's genius. The people who made these movies were geniuses, from top to bottom.
Theyre the only movies i could watch on repeat and never get tired. Whenever theyre on while zapping on the tv my wife already knows were watching it till the end (thankfully she loves them just as much as i do 😂)
I went to watch all three with my son and brother in law and yes they were true cinematic dreams not only in story and movie making but also a true treat for the cinema audience and when we got the extended versions,well they were nothing short of the stuff of dreams when it comes to me personally as every since the late 1970’s and having the special edition of Close Encounters Of The Third Kind I’ve been on a personal quest to obtain,watch and adore as many directors/extended cuts of movies as i can get my hands on and in nearly every case they turn out to be better for having the extra or extended scenes put back in. The Punisher extended cut is a prime example of how good a fuller longer version of a movie that fills in all the missing pieces can be
Will never forget the wonder of reading “The Hobbit” for the first time back in 1st grade and being introduced to Tolkien’s world. It’s been 30 years since then and to see TLOTR come out in the first year of high school was something special.
Great video, 2 Left Frames. And thank you for reminding me to appreciate the Lord of the Rings trilogy. These movies had always been my favourite of all time and I had been a fan of them for a very long time.
One surprisingly important thing about filming all three films together as a single unit is that you have only one contract with all of the actors and people. Most projects, when you get around to making film two and then film three, the lead actors want more and more money and your budget blows out. But by filming as a single entity, Jackson probably saved $100-200 million on increasing actors wages. And it also stops everyone trying to gouge you for more money with every movie. If done as three different movies, I doubt that it would ever have been completed. It also helped that it was made in New Zealand. This meant that the Hollywood unions did not get to tell everyone what they were and were not allowed to do. This means that they could often get three times as many camera set ups shot in a single day. Throw in that the whole country was behind the project and it was a work of love, not money, means it can never be repeated.
@@ShadowDragon-cw7wb -During Lord of the Rings, their were unions, but they were controlled by the Australian unions. I remember the unions going on strike and when the interviewer asked the head of the union what they wanted, she had to admit that she didn't know. AQ lot of the things the unions were asking for were totally impossible and they knew it. So why were they asking for them? Because that is what the Aussie unions wanted them to ask for.
@@StagnantMizu I wouldn't go *that* far. But it definitely lost some quality in the transition. I had to work with pre-rendered video in order to alter it, and this is the consequence :( If I ever have to do that style of video transitioning again, I'll more heavily experiment with how to avoid such dramatic losses in video quality. My apologies that it took such a notable quality hit
Within the first minute I recognised that the soundtrack to this video was from The Battle For Middle-Earth 2 video game, which featured new music composed by EA Games, and since they no longer have the rights to produce any LOTR games the property is kind of in a legal void, so it's very unlikely EA can copyright claim it any more. Good thinking!
@@stephenlaing2152 That would have been the worst LOTR in history. Dude is a walking Ed Hardy jean. 300 is meh and the Znyder cut is the biggest "sniff my own farts" piece of media I have ever seen.
Jackson, Walsh and Boyens really were in the last chance saloon with New Line. It was their final option, essentially bottom of their list of realistic hopefuls. They took the meeting really just as a way of ticking the final box and being able to say “we tried our best” before flying home in defeat.
I am proud to have been the 3000th viewer who liked this video 😊 The existence of the LOTR movie trilogy is indeed a miracle! And it has aged incredibly well! 11 months ago we had the dubious privilege to be able to compare it with Amazon's " Rings Of Power", which was allegedly the most expensive tv production ever😂 This experience left me speechless - but not a good way! I started to wonder if Amazon's "ROP" may have been a brilliant money laundering scheme😂 Peter Jackson's LOTR trilogy is of course not perfect. But Peter Jackson managed to create a version of Middle Earth with all of it's wonders and fantastic creatures, which felt absolutely credible. Peter Jackson might as well have taken his crew to Middle Earth. I heard that he even managed to hire the last of the once magnificent race of the balrogs, who made an honest living as a firefighter in a small town in New Zealand. I honestly cannot imagine that a remake which has actually been planned by Amazon, will be able to create the same magic! And it's true that Peter Jackson himself wasn't able to repeat the miracle with his very flawed Hobbit trilogy. And personally I agree with Viggo Mortensen: I like the first LOTR movie best.
I believe that Tolkien was inspired by God, and I believe the same of Peter Jackson and his crew to make the film adaptation. Nothing else explains the miracle of how these works were made.
Sales of Tolkien increased by 1000% after LOTR. Jackson's formula - honor Tolkien, follow the lore, and don't insert your own politics - clearly worked. Amazon's formula - contradict the lore, insert modern identity politics, and delete all negative reviews - clearly failed.
Thanks for this assessment. I haved loved this story since I was very young and Mum got it out of the Library every year to read aloud to us kids - it hadn't even come out in paperback yet, so you can imagine how long that is! I was deeply sceptical when I heard movies were being made of the books but after having seen the few pathetic efforts thus far can you blame me?As a result I only saw the last of the three at the cinema. My favourite way to watch this is watch the extended editions in a single day, start in the mid-morning and serve the meals served in the films (a full English brekkie for protein and energy for over 12 hours - home-made minestrone soup for lunch (the little kids arriving at Edoras) with a chicken salad for dinner (yep, that scene from Return of the King) along with appropriate snacks). I loved the section of your video regarding the music as I think this is the best soundtrack ever and I have always loved soundtracks. I believe that the music, along with the locations counted like the tenth and eleventh members of the Fellowship!!. Thanks. I thoroughly enjoyed this.
I just saw them all in theaters with the extended versions getting rereleased for the first time and it was a truly once in a lifetime trilogy of movies made with so much love and care! I already want to rewatch them and im reading the books right now too
The fact that mainstream was positive on lotr is what amazes me. In a time when fantasy was "pretty gay dude". I'm so happy to have lotr hit in my teens. Epic time to be alive. Imagine 18 yr old me, with my girlfriend in the theater and i've got my hand around her neck like that guy in the stadium seating meme, "babe, get ready for this. this horse is badass."
Of course i recognize the music in the background, it's from one of my favorite games of all time! the one and only Lord Of The Rings The Battle For Middle Earth 2! An amazing game which i highly recommend to any lotr fan!
I am proud to say I was there when this came out. I witnessed film history. We were talking about this in middle school. This was to us what Star Wars was to the kids of the late 70's and early 80's. I feel kids of today will never know how good this time was.
I always watched them on my boxset dvds haha. A lot of them are uploaded directly on youtube. But I think if you want the *full*, high quality collection, purchasing is easily your best bet. The next most likely to have them **all** would be... less than legal means ;)
Did you think I REALLY wouldn't recognize that BGM you used for this video?? It is the awesome OST of the AWESOME game Battle for Middle-Earth II. Hours upon hours of my childhood spent playing it and the prequel and expansion games.
Hey, VFX Artist here! Really loved your video except for some points along the end I think you missed, which is fine because many people lack the knowledge behind VFX and often the rhetoric is that lots of CGI = not good for movies. It's important to note that poor CGI is MORE a reflection of POORLY PLANNED and bad FILMMAKING. Strong PREproduction ALSO reflects in good POSTproduction. People underestimate how much good CGI relies on well filmed scenes, good planning, referenced props even if they are replaced with CGI, etc. I think that's what made the CGI successful even though it was not very realistic yet, there was an intent to help the CGI Artists rather than seeing it as 'magic' or a 'bandaid'. This is why you will see some movies in that era with awful CGI, or why the Hobbit despite being much later having poor CGI - it's because it was poorly planned filmmaking and I also guarantee you that the turnarounds for those CGI were ludicrously short. I think that in the current landscape of pumping out quick CGI blockbusters with barely any time for us VFX Artists to refine our work, that level of care seen in the LOTR films will be hard to replicate again. It's also why the VFX in the latest Avatar looks great, people like to argue that it's because some scenes are 'real' but 99% of the time they are composited over with CGI - I have friends who worked on many of those contested shots. It's because the visual development and preproduction was truly fleshed out with an understanding of VFX.
Well said! I've grown up watching behind the scenes on as many movies as possible, and eagerly eat up things like "VFX Artists React" series from Corridor Digital. While I certainly don't *know* everything about how films are made, I like to think I have an above-average awareness of how that pipeline looks, and how often the production is to blame! I regret that I may have framed anything in this video that made it sounds like the artists themselves were to blame for any of it. I have other videos talking about the MCU, which obviously has an increasingly rocky reputation for their CGI. I'm FULLY aware that is the fault of poor/lazy planning, cost cutting, short turnarounds, and excluding key people with the know-how from the actual filming process. In those videos I default to laying blame on the studios - as VFX studios are STACKED with talent who can create movie magic when given the time and resources! Thank you for expanding on that and taking the time to further educate myself and others. Cheers!
@@2leftframes Thanks for taking the time to reply! To reiterate I really enjoyed your entire video and it didn't sound like you were blaming the artists at all. It's just I have seen many many videos that gloss over this fact about CGI or don't mention it EXPLICITLY, which sort of continues this rhetoric about CGI. We don't expect everyone to know about it and not every creator is as passionate about VFX as you seem to be, so it sort of sucks to hear in the majority of film essays out there. Also to be frank many VFX Artists are not huge fans of Corridor Digital 😅as a lot of their takes are wrong or they sensationalize mistakes or tech to the detriment of the industry - I do like episodes where they have actual CG Supes on though. I recently had a shot of mine broken down incorrectly xD But they are certainly accessible entertainment and very good at that! I would actually recommend watching breakdowns or interviews from vfx houses themselves (Weta, DNEG, Framestore etc.) - unfortunately you are very correct in that films rarely release hours long behind the scenes for anything anymore which is a shame. Keep up the great work - Your passion and your research very much shows in the work you do!
@@maryfaceeggo The guest appearances on CD are often the most informative episodes! Although I've definitely assumed they are more or less correctly analyzing shots when they tackle any of that themselves. A video dispelling common myths or misconceptions on VFX production, with real industry examples and insight, could be really neat! If you have any interest (or the ability with NDAs an whatnot) in chatting directly about any of that, it could be a lot of fun! DMing me on Twitter is probably easiest? 2_left_thumbs. No pressure! Thanks again for the chat :)
@@2leftframes wow that's such a cool idea! I'll try to contribute what I can, I am very passionate about this topic! I'm actually more on IG as I'm not active on Twitter at all but I'll msg you my user on Twitter :)
Come join the Fellowship of Yearly Trilogy Enjoyers by following me on Twitter.
I talk about the latest movies over there pretty well daily ► twitter.com/graeme_games
It's been 20 years..and the movies haven't aged a day, what a treat!
I see what you did there. ;)
I'd argue they've aged better....movies just don't look or even feel like this anymore
💯. Saw them all recently back to back.... They stand up. Classics.
Ehh, some of the CGI is a bit dodgy, but I'm with you in sentiment.
Some of the CGI did in fact age. The practical effects are as always great.
Lord of the Rings was never written as a trilogy. When it was published, there was a paper shortage. For economic reasons the story was publish as 3 books instead of one. Though called a fantasy, Tolkien wrote the story as if it was an actual history of a time long forgotten. This approach gave the story tremendous depth and richness. Peter Jackson chose to film it as one story instead as a trilogy, which was Tolkien's original intent had the publishers allowed him too. Peter Jackson also chose to film it as if it was an actual history, rather than a fantasy, just like Tolkien did in writing it. This, I believe, helped make the movies so successful. It was also the reason all three movies reflected that same depth, and richness. All three movies had the same quality, which is usually not find in trilogies.
Tolkien story with the editor snd the division of the books is a bit funny. Initially, they wanted to publish it as 7 books I believe, to which Tolkien protested, and they cut it down to 3. The book titles also were not chosen by him: Tolkien admitted not knowing which were the exact Two Towers, and he disliked Return of the King for being a spoiler and he would prefered the title War of the Ring
@@stephenlaing2152 Yeah but his family also tried to make money off the unfinished cliff notes version of The Silmarillion that Tolkien did not think was anywhere near close to finished.
Tolkien was a very interesting writer when it came to The Lord Of The Rings. He had no formal writing experience and didn't know how to properly plan a story or write and rewrite parts.
As such, he would write his entire story from start to finish in order, and whenever he came into a roadblock or wrote himself into a corner, he would throw the whole story out and start again until it was completed
@@stephenlaing2152 No the OP is correct in that it was right after world war 2 and there was a paper shortage. This was a financial decision because they COULD have released it as one huge tome but it would have been so exorbitantly expensive at the time that no one could have afforded to buy it and we all would have lost something for that. This is explicitly stated in the extended edition extra discs from the publisher.
@@Lordgrayson Yup one of the guys in the extras discs likened his writing approach to waves coming on to a beach. Each would get a bit farther but it would return all the way back to the start.
What do u mean it just felt like a movie not a history lesson on my the books were like that
Those 3 movies hold a place above all others in my heart. I am so thankful that they where made, when they were made. Masterpieces.
I was too young to have witnessed the original STAR WARS trilogy. But I was exactly the right age for The Lord of the Rings trilogy. And, by God, it was epic!
Goosebumps in the theaters.
I can't consider myself #1 Tolkien fan, but it brings literal tears to my eyes, knowing these movies exist. What an impossible task to make such a timeless masterpiece. It's just insane.
I genuinely wish they didn't. There are so many thematic inconsistencies, not to mention the decision to cut out the barrow-downs in the first movie is like a knife to the heart. It completely changes the whole meaning of their journey. They don't realise that any little change makes the themes slightly different, and with a world as complex as Tolkien's, attempting an adaptation is an exercise in futility. Most people will never read the book, they will only see the films, and they will come away with half of the half of the half of his world. I'm glad for the people who FOUND Tolkien through the films... But I know that those are very few, sadly.
@@Midorikonokami Awww, the film wasn't a one to one recreation of the books. Unlucky. Some of us are able to understand that the books are unfilmable. 10 different directors will have 10 different versions. The ones that cover the bits you are whinging about will skip other bits. The fact you are unable to step back and see the films as a highlights reel is quite sad. I love the books and I love the films. After the disaster that was Rings of Power, these films look even better.
@@MidorikonokamiAs long as you don’t tell this to everyone who likes the movies, I respect your opinion.
@@Midorikonokami There were always going to be changes to the source material to be able to make it filmable. What the movie needed to do was respect Tolkien and his vision, have the main themes flow throughout the movie, and bring the world of Middle Earth to life in a believable way. I think they did a great job in achieving that. I'm ok with certain things being cut to make it flow better as a movie.
@@Midorikonokami I hear you, and I know many Tolkien readers who might agree with you. But I have read the LOTR books long before the movies were made, and I loved them. But I ended up loving the movies, too! While I didn't like all of Peter Jackson's choices, I felt that he has created a fully believable version of Middle Earth with all it's big and small magical creatures, which I could fully embrace. And some of his casting choices have been brilliant. I cannot imagine a better Gandalf than Sir Ian McKellen. And Andy Serkis and motion capture created a wonderful Gollum whom we could hate, pity, laugh at, and even love very deep down in our souls. Gollum felt like a real person with a heart and a soul .
And the movies have aged incredibly well. Twenty years later they still look great, and younger generations of viewers can still embrace them. I just wish that these younger viewers will eventually read the books, too! Too many of them don't - and they don't know that they are missing a great experience!
I think The Lord of the Rings Trilogy is one of those rare examples in history in which the executives of the studio actually didn't hinder the creative development of a product. Props should be given to them for actually doing the right thing and giving Jackson the time he needed.
It's a great example of what can happen when even the higher-ups believe in the product on an artistic level.
And then there is the Hobbit trilogy which is the complete opposite and forced into being another trilogy because that had worked before
@@ToMtRoOpEr05they could have made one two hour movie and basically done the book word for word, but nooooo, the studio had to have a trilogy
On what grounds did they believe in jackson? There were none.
@@RevanReborn3950BBY they could have done the same with tLofR but no, they had to have pj's abysmal trilogy. If you enjoyed tLotR how can you not enjoy The Hobbit trilogy? It's the exact same paradigm *except* he was truer to the book than he was with tLotR.
@@KeldorDAntrell wtf are you on?
Are we both talking about the two trilogies directed by Peter Jackson, and the LOTR books and the Hobbit?
There is 10 times more stuff going on in the LOTR than in the Hobbit, and the LOTR movies are much more faithful. Yes there are issues with the movies, but overall it conveys the important themes and messages of the books in a very faithful way, while the Hobbit trilogy is almost as bad as ROP, only better because there wasn’t willful ignorance as opposed to being put in a shit situation by the studio
One of the things that distinguishes Tolkien's fantasy is the depth of his characterizations. It's clear that he knew the complete biography of every character - no matter how minor. The result is that Middle Earth as a whole is much more convincing.
"he knew the complete biography of every character"
Tom Bombadil
I can't remember precisely, but isn't George RR Martin another author like that?
I seem to recall that he has like multiple generations worth of a family tree for every character, and lots of the minor ones as well. Where they were from. What means their family had. Do they have friends or rivals? Were they in any wars?
It's a super complicated approach, but it makes their stories feel like slices of history!
@@2leftframes I dont think so. Martin describes it like that: “I think there are two types of writers, the architects and the gardeners. The architects plan everything ahead of time, like an architect building a house. They know how many rooms are going to be in the house, what kind of roof they're going to have, where the wires are going to run, what kind of plumbing there's going to be. They have the whole thing designed and blueprinted out before they even nail the first board up. The gardeners dig a hole, drop in a seed and water it. They kind of know what seed it is, they know if planted a fantasy seed or mystery seed or whatever. But as the plant comes up and they water it, they don't know how many branches it's going to have, they find out as it grows. And I'm much more a gardener than an architect.”
@@stylefreak2344 Very interesting! It's always cool to hear different writers talk about their styles :)
I especially loved the discussion between Stephen King and George RR Martin from a while back on productivity. Thanks for sharing!!
@@stylefreak2344
Gardeners vs Architects is a distinction that's commonly used to refer to how one writes plot/story. GRRM is absolutely a gardener, bit the reason it works so well for him is because his characters are written to a ridiculously high degree. To use the gardener analogy, if the garden is the plot being left to grow on its own, then everything from the seeds to the soil are what writers like GRRM and Tolkien refine to an incredibly high level of detail. It's what makes plot feel so natural because while the characters actions aren't necessarily planned and micromanaged, their individual histories influence their choices in a way that feels real and human
When I was a kid, Star Wars was THE fabtasy series that meant the most to me. Im 36 now and over the last decade i have realized that LOTR means more and more to me the older I get.
Same here! Truth be told, George Lucas spoiled Star Wars with me when he deemed the Special Editions as the “official versions” and forbade the release of the non-Special Editions from ever happening again.
I saw the animated version at the cinema in 1978 age 11. I read LOTR in 1983. The same year i caddied for Christopher Lee at Gleneagles Hotel for two days while he was taking part in a Pro/Celebrity golf tournament. We talked books, movies and golf. Of course back then i was meeting Dracula. I still have the photo of us on the course, my smile is a mile wide.
That is absolutely incredible John!! Thank you so much for sharing :)
I have to ask. Was he a good golfer?
@@2leftframes Thanks for the reply. Yeh he was pretty good. I stood and watched him while he was on the driving range practicing before we went out on the course. The mists of time and all that but i remember meeting Sean Connery, George c Scott ( who wouldn't sign my autograph book), Formula One legend Jame Hunt and several UK TV stars.
@@johnbarrett4846 He was Scaramanga in those days! the dark hammer days were long before!
@@khav11 It was also 10 years since he was a Bond villan. What's your point?
@@johnbarrett4846 Dracula was 30 years before so i win , old timer.
If only Amazon prime had the same respect for Tolkien as Peter Jackson.
@@enorma29 hmm, okay...
There’s a sickness in Hollywood. They’re more concerned about current political ideologies than making quality timeless stories
If only 2024 Peter Jackson had de same respect for Tolkien as 2000 Peter Jackson..
Apparently they don’t even own the real Tolkien Silmarillion story
It is better then you think it is. Just watch carefully without bias.
I'm now being told to watch this for a school assignment. Your channel has made it to the point where university professors are using it to help people teach leadership in an online class that never meets in person.
Teach... leadership?
That's so interesting! How? Why!!
Greatest cinematic masterpiece to ever hit the big screen. The extended DVD collection surpasses all expectations. How lucky are we to be alive when the LOTR trilogy was released. Unforgettable time and I cherish my collection and watch it all once every year.
The extended edition Dvds are still, 20 years later.... THE standard of what can be fine with dvd extras and making of documentaries
Couldn't agree more man. Cheers
Peter Jackson said so himself that the undertaking of making the Lord of the Rings trilogy was a task of such Herculean effort, he didn't ever want to try doing something like that ever again. Plus, he's aged considerably when making The Hobbit, which understandably makes him more tired. Don't underestimate what difference one decade makes when you're past 40.
At age 35, I’m already feeling this.
Absolutely good insight. Yeah. Once you make a one MONUMENTAL work in your lifetime it will take a lifeforce out of you.
No doubt! I'm sure the thrill of lengthy night shoots, and overwhelmingly dense scheduling becomes a LOT more taxing as the years go by.
i dont think Jackson could again, he put 100% of pure passion into it, he is not that passionate to the level of LOTR with anything else so it would be hard for him to find that same level of passion out.
The main issue is that Peter Jackson is more interested in fanciful over the top action sequences that the story, and he's so far gone he can't make a compelling movie anymore. You.can see this slide as the LOTR movies progress. Then even moreso in King Kong, and then the Hobbit trilogy
We truly may never see this kind of thing again. It was such a long shot in terms of being made and it ended up in the absolutely perfect hands.
It's just hard to find people that actually love the source material they are adapting to this degree anymore. All the money in the world won't replace creators that truly love what they are doing and are willing to give everything for it. This video hit on that. The time everyone (and I mean everyone involved) spent on these movies is colossal. They lived this experience in a way that productions today would never dream of asking. Not to pick on superhero movies. But today you can barely get any of those actors to put on makeup or wear real helmets. It's all just CGI. And LOTR was in a sweet spot where CGI was good enough to support the film making process without being a crutch that would be leaned on too heavily.
These will be some of the best movies ever made. And no one can take that away from everyone involved in making it.
Look at fucking Halo.
The staff behind the series were genuinely retarded. They wante dto make their own corny series instead, and had zero respect for the source material.
Tolkein did the character development/history/lore approach to writing a story, that Halo and the Clone Wars are known for now.
I think Christopher Nolan might be making a clone wars movie according to rumours.
But damn it would be sick seeing a properly done Halo movie.
I saw all 3 in theaters. The first one came out when I was 6 years old and I was allowed to see them. It was amazing and I was instantly hooked and became obsessed
The trilogy stands and likely will forevermore stand as the pinnacle of what films can be in terms of scope and scale. It’s simply the perfect trilogy.
it will be a symbol of honesty , respecting a source material and witted mind, Peter Jackson.
the film won't ever be made like this too because the cast is all white. No way they could ever get away with that now.
@@dizzydazed8055Shouldnt be anything wrong with it, given LOTR's historical/mythological influences. At the time people could just accept that fact and be okay with it. Now people will get upset. Crazy world we live in today lol.
yes, Aragon would have to be played by Idris Elba and Gimli Kevin Hart (for da comic relief)@@FrancT-
@@FrancT- I don’t think anyone actually gets upset at that. People still love these movies
I think it's a bit odd to say that Peter Jackson "purposely excluded" Gollum from the first movie because the CGI tech wasn't quite advanced enough to portray him yet. Wasn't that more fundamentally because of the source material? Gollum himself doesn't actually make an appearance in the *novel* The Fellowship of the Ring, either. He's referred to repeatedly by Gandalf, Frodo, Aragorn, and to a lesser extent Legolas; but he doesn't show up in person until the second novel, The Two Towers. That was reason enough for Jackson to leave Gollum mostly out of the first movie.
It certainly wasn't difficult to omit him from the first movie. I believe the plan was only ever to tease his presence? But the hadn't nailed down the motion capture yet. So even in that small tease, it's a different character model, without any performance capture, fully obscured by shadows. It's totally effective!
It was an excellent creative decision that gave them an additional year to perfect everything they wanted to achieve before a proper reveal of the character. So the technical limitation, and storytelling worked in their favor. But it was still a purposeful choice to not show anything before it felt ready to be shown.
But Gollum was in the first movie, albeit very briefly. When they're in the mines of Moria, he's following them, and Gandalf points it out to Frodo. It shows a closeup of Gollum's eyes.
Also Andy Serkis hadn’t been cast yet when filming started. He was originally cast just for his voice, but soon took over the role and embodied the performance of Golem.
Seeing this trilogy in theatres for the first time was magical. I’ll never forget it.
I watched The Fellowship of the Ring and The Return of the King Extended Editions in movie theaters recently when they released the 20th Anniversary of the 3rd film. Let me say this, no other film comes near The Lord of the Rings. It will forever be my greatest movie watching experience or until another can challenge it (Avengers Endgame got knocked down). Watched it with my brother and the other 60-90 people that went as well. Loved it so much going to watch it for a second time before they remove it from theaters. Rich characters and storytelling that will forever remain relevant.
If my town ever did a ~12 hours screening of the extended trilogy, I'd drop everything to go spend my day doing that haha
@@2leftframes I don't want to gloat or anything, but about a month ago I went to a theater screening of the TLOTR Trilogy in Los Angeles. All day Saturday from 10am to 1130pm. They showed the extended versions of Fellowship and The Two Towers. Unfortunately, The Return of the King was the theatrical release since they were only showing the films on 35mm print and they never made The Return of the King Extended Edition on 35mm, but was still a fantastic showing. The organizer of the screenings said that 500 people had purchased all day passes (myself included). All those people, in one theater, all sharing that same experience will go down as my most memorable and enjoyable movie watching experience... or until they do another marathon, maybe next year.
i was obsessed with waiting until Two Towers and ROTK came out (i casually went to see Fellowship with a friend, thinking it was going to be an "ok" movie, man i was wrong). i remember in class bugging my friend who had read the books already describe what happens in the following movies, When he said a ghost army was in the movies, i couldnt wait the years to see that play out
No Marvel movie could ever come close to being as great as The LOTR trilogy
Avengers Endgame i don't even consider it as Masterpiece. Hate to compare it But the 1st three LOTR trilogy is absolutely a MASTERPIECE!!! It's just in another level that we may or may not see until another 20,30 or 40 years to come But won't happen everytime or usual. That's why it's very special.
I love everything about L.O.T.R., the books, movies, behind scenes, actors, music, P. Jackson, the whole crew of people, their love, passion, craft, art, intelligence, creativity, originality, faith, joy, everything. I agree, that possibly something like this miracle will never happen again. I watched this trilogy many times, first in the theatre, later the extended movies. Last time I rewatched this trilogy was yesterday. Since I've watched the extended films 20 years ago for the first time, I am not able to watch the shorter ones. But I liked the Hobbit trilogy too. Much more than the book. I love all Tolkien's books and his fantasy world. So I appreciate Your video.
Jackson going up against impossible odds to make this trilogy is akin to Frodo's impossible odds of destroying the ring.
I have seen this trilogy once. And saw it immediately for the masterpiece that it is. I truly thought people were just hyping it up but no. Everyone was dead serious and it is phenomenal. Inspired me to actually get the books and give them a read once I finish the series I’m currently on and I’m incredibly excited
I've long felt that The Lord of the Rings movies are the crowning achievement in cinema history, and you've done a pretty good job of capturing most of the reasons why. I especially appreciate the section on CGI, I completely agree that these movies came along at exactly the right time in terms of CGI development. They simply wouldn't have been possible without CGI, but the fact that the CGI was still somewhat limited and definitely expensive and time consuming forced them to stick with practical effects as much as possible. I'm not even sure it's impossible to make a similarly good movie with more extensive use of CGI. But I'm hard pressed to think of anyone in the years since these movies came out who's managed to avoid the temptation to use it to create scenes that aren't just impractical to physically film, but which are really physically impossible in ways that go beyond the requirements of the setting and story. I agree with Vigo that too much of this even crept into The Lord of the Rings movies as they went along - it's little enough that I can overlook it, but it's definitely there.
I also think that you actually underplayed the near impossibility of getting financing for set of movies like this. The whole project very nearly fell apart when the original studio (Miramax?) got cold feet and started insisting on cutting it from two movies to one, but even at two movies it wouldn't have been anywhere near the same thing as what we eventually got. While the movies as made are far from completely faithful to the original with major changes to important characters like Aragorn and the complete elimination of whole parts of the story like Tom Bombadill and the scouring of the Shire, if the things I've heard about the plans for the two movie plot are true I'm not sure it would still have really counted as an adaptation of Tolkien's story. It would still undoubtedly be fair to say that it was inspired by The Lord of the Rings, and it might still have been a very good couple of movies, but it wouldn't really have been the same story. I think the NewLine head who insisted on expanding it to three movies doesn't get as much credit for the resulting triumph as he deserves.
I don't think they're the greatest films ever made, since they don't add anything to the books. They actually take away from them a bit, since they're made to sell toys and they have action scenes, which takes away a lot of authenticity.
@@Siegfried5846 ...so basically what you're saying is that Lotr is not the best book adaptaition ever made.
Covering all of the origin(al) is not in the definition of what's a good movie and not covering it all doesn't make it a bad movie, otherwise all movies based on books would be bad movies, because (as far as I know) there is no movie that is exactly like the book. On top of that, if they added anything to the original, people would start saying that they took too much creative liberty and abused the original.
On a different note: yours circular reasoning.
Just because they make money from selling toys, doesn't mean that's the reason for why they made the movie in the first place. You want to make money from a movie, yes, especially from an epic like Lotr, because it sells well and because you have to cover the costs of such an enormous undertaking somehow. And relying only on sold copies and tickets is not only naive but also very stupid. There are movies ad/or TV series that were solely and specifically made to sell toys (basically all cartoons whose characters are being sold as toys by Mattel) but although I don't know for sure, because I can't look into the heads of the people responsible, I'm quite sure that Lotr isn't one of them and was never supposed to be.
@@Red80008 When I said that they take away from the books, I meant that they aren't as good as the books. They cheapen them quite like how they added modern dialogue and fully changed Frodo's personality. Furthermore, they go by way too quickly. Especially the bit in the beginning without Tom Bombadil.
The toys wouldn't be a problem if the films weren't changed just so that they could sell toys. If you look at the character designs, they're all made to sell as many toys as possible, and it's quite sickening to me now that I watch them as an adult. They barely even look medieval, since that wouldn't sell enough.
I do like the films, especially for the music. But the film makers' greed holds back the story. There's no denying that.
@@Siegfried5846 OH MY GOD, what would be the point of Tom Bombadil, he is fascinating yes, but he would literally be worthless to the story the movie was trying to tell, what about the barrow wights? you could say that because they didn't film that of that they wouldn't have the swords of Westernesse. As for the toys, "the only real effort at LOTR toys was made by Knickerbocker in 1979 to go with the ANIMATED film of the prior year. The line consisted of six figures and two horses: Aragorn, a riding Frodo, Samwise, Gandalf, a riding Ringwraith, and Gollum. The line ended after only nine (I cannot find the other 2) characters being produced around two and a half years after it began. The largest reason the line concluded was that Lord of the Rings was being made into a big-budget film trilogy shot together and scheduled for release during Christmas in 2001-2003, and the property was licensed to Toy Biz. Even though the Toy Vault line was based on the literary aspects of LOTR, it was felt that it would be best to end the line to avoid any confusion over the products." www.toymania.com/archives/metoys/metoyshistory.shtml that's my link to the only proof I could find of toys. edit: Wait also build a bear made some pretty far after the movies nerdist.com/article/new-lord-of-the-rings-plushies-build-a-bear/ . As for Frodo's personality change, that's because they didn't have a timeskip of 17 years which isn't really loyal to the book but quite minor, but what's REALLY bad about this argument is that your ALSO forgetting about when Samwise and Frodo experienced infighting for no reason over Gollum spilling bread over Gamgee, that's WAY dumber with a filler moment that didn't matter, that just wasted time, or how about when they decided not to add in the scene at the end of the book where the ring proclaimed at Gollum that if he touched it again, he would throw himself into the fire, that's how the ring was destroyed in the fire, not a deus ex machina of dumb luck where Gollum slipped, THAT'S a really good thing to criticize, there's a bunch to criticize about these masterpieces, but being made to sell toys, that's just terrible, also calling the filmmakers greedy is subjective, I guess maybe your right under that logic but whatever. By the way of course they were made in modern accents, this film had to make back half a million bucks, they wouldn't be some strange movies that only hipsters would like for being unpopular then hate for becoming main stream, like you.
TLDR please give sources and have a better argument YOU HIPSTER WANNABE
@@Siegfried5846 Do you ever expect movie adaptations to be as expansive as any book? the nature of moving a book to a movie is "cheapening" it. It's what scenes and dialogue they keep and leave out what will make an adaptation good or bad, which is difficult as hell. I think LOTR did a great job on what would and wouldn't transfer well to film
What happened to Peter Jackson after the original trilogy was already predicted by Tolkien in the words of Fëanor to the Valar:
'For the less even as for the greater there is some deed that he may accomplish but once only; and in that deed his heart shall rest. It may be that I can unlock my jewels, but never again shall I make their like; and if I must break them, I shall break my heart, and I shall be slain; first of all the Eldar in Aman.'
I didn't think they could do the books justice. I was never so happy to be wrong.
Do you think the characters were done correctly? They weren’t. At all. Peter Jackson strikes me as a vapid, shallow man who had no idea how to adapt the characters to the big screen. One need only look at how contemptuously he treated Gimli. But, really, every character was mistreated.
@@junglemoose2164Get some hugs and remake it better
@@junglemoose2164 your clearly a miserable bastard lmao stop projecting
@@junglemoose2164He did turn Gimli into a walking joke, that's true.
@@kentl7228 If you like the film, fine. But none of the characters in the film are the ones in the books. I just can't like the films. I've tried.
Also, try to not to excuse bad filmmaking just because no one has yet to do it better.
I just love that you used the soundtrack of the battle for middle earth game. immediately recognized it when you played "the dwarves explore"
I had "Into the West" played at my mother's funeral in 2019 because just as there will never be movies like these again, there never will be another woman like her again.
So did I. Friends and family said it was the perfect music to send a wonderful woman into the afterlife. Into the west.
There's something funny about this video getting an extended edition
When I thought of titling the video that way, I really couldn't resist!
I'd even call it an hommage !
Each time I finish this trilogy, I get a feeling of genuine sadness once its all over. Not just that this amazing trilogy is done. But just the feeling of...knowing that I won't go back to another film series that I will love so desperately as much as I love LOTR
I watched the extended movies and the appendices so many times my original box set wore out. This trilogy finally put Star Wars (IV, V, VI) into the #2 trilogy spot on my list. Very nice, I love this version of your original. I would hope that it finds it's way in front of all who watched the 1st version.
Lord of the Rings is far above Star Wars. Star Wars and Empire are great films but Jedi definitely doesn't hold up as well.
I hope so too! The worst part, is that due to an editing kerfuffle, I think this video rendered at much lower quality overall :( I hope that doesn't chase off too many potential viewers!
For Most people, Star Wars old trilogy are their trilogy when they grew up But for me Lord of the Rings first trilogy is my Star Wars.
I did the same. Wore my first extended set out lol had to rebuy the whole lot
This is so bitter sweet. I was lucky to have witnessed all these movies in at the cinema. It is sad that kids don't get to see something as majestic as this.
Why not? I introduced my 8-years old son to this timeless, universal story.
Loved the original video so I was super stoked to see an extended version! Love how thorough this one is.
Glad to hear the additions felt worth a rewatch :)
there are some films that look old and dated 20 years later. but not the LOTR trilogy.
Movie was as beautiful today as the day it was released.
This was a delightful essay on The LOTR trilogy. I broke into tears multiple times through the video.
Howard Shore's study of two centuries of music was mind-boggling.
Not one of the best cinematic achievements, THE greatest cinematic achievement of all time. Nothing will ever come close
I was fortunate enough to watch them in the movie theaters as a kid, I agree at least for me this 3 movies are above anything else ever released or that will probably ever be released at least in our timelines. I loved watching those behind the scenes, and in school I was fortunate enough to have one of my teachers be a VFX animator from this movies, I asked and learned so much about this films that semester. I can only dream to one day be able to work or see anything that even comes close to these 3 masterpieces of film.
The moment I heard Galdriel's narration I was: Ugh another overly serious gantasy bs... then came the shots of the last alliance at Mount Doom... and I was in.
Never will forget the awe I felt when the Balrog jumped into close up shot... or grief when Boromir died or tension when they gought in the Mazarbul chamber....
God and part3!!! Tears. Hate for Gollum and sheer feeling of revenge when the Rohirrim started their charge.... my god.
Frames and moments from these movies are seared into my brain to a degree that very few other films have ever accomplished.
LOTR trilogy will remain my favourite movies, a true classic, not just the cinematography but beautiful music as well, on top of a great line of actors.
I think the biggest reason we'll never see something like this again is simply because of the time it was made in and how long it has been. Game of Thrones is the closest thing I can think of and even those books were written in the 90s and because they're still not done, it went off on its own and ended up disappointing. It's been decades, most things have been done, there's not much new ground to tread or trends to redefine, it's just a matter of how well it can be executed and you simply can't compete with novels with reputations like that. It would be incredibly hard for a brand new IP to come along and reach those heights. As monumental as GoT was, I still wouldn't say it is anywhere near as influential as Tolkien. You just can't compete with people that literally laid the groundwork of the entire genre. The same way we'll likely never have another rock/metal rebellion like Metallica, Pantera, DIO, and all of those guys, because times have changed and there's just not a lot of ground that hasn't already been covered. Things are established, there's nothing to really prove anymore so innovation is much harder, let alone doing it well. I can't think of anything modern outside of GoT and maybe Walking Dead that may be considered something that will last a very long time and influence future works. Doctor Who used to be like that until recently, hopefully it can turn itself around and Star Wars is a complete mess now.
You also have to factor in that Hollywood stopped giving a fuck about storytelling in favor of ideologies people frankly don’t agree with, which is they’re going to Asia for stories. Talk to any foreigner and they’ll be baffled at how much propaganda is on our Televisions and movie screens.
@@Anayoththat’s just inaccurate. Foreign flicks are known for having government propaganda, especially China.
Dune is the only thing that even comes to Lord of the Rings
If there was a religion of LOTR, its believers would say their it was their Gods divine will the studio waited 438 days of pre production and 280 million dollars given to an unproven director, and it came out insanely well in the end, because what happened is nothing short of a miracle. I will cherish these movies until i die.
Eru Ilúvatar
@@Itstwofourteen 😊 👍🏻
Special effects is an art both digital and practical. Personally, I love them both mixed together. They did not fail because of digital effects, they fail because of the lack of care and respect given to the effects them selves. If you look at movies like Avatar and Avatar 2 and the planet of the apes movies, you have a perfect example of how digital effects should be cared for and respected, not just some cheap after thought. I hate when I hear digital effects destroy movies when it is not true. Terrible production destroys movies.
i wish i could go back and experience what it was like to watch these films in the theater for the first time again
I would hate to watch a marathon of them....a year between would be sweet...but I'm so bored by the third when watching in a row
Very good analysis, Sir! Your passion for these movies truly shines through in every part, and the quality of this video is on par with some of the best movie essay channels I know on RUclips. Would love to see more videos like this.
I went to the theaters each Christmas for each of these films, and I distinctly remember being so thoroughly blown away by the level of quality of everything. It was kind of surreal just how well it all came together.
When I was a kid and the movies were being released the DVD box sets that included the "making of" features were one of my most cherished possessions. It blew my mind that LOTR had things going on that didn't happen in other productions, because they seemed so obvious and added so much to the details which made the story visually so believable. Thing's like actor's, specifically Viggo Mortensen doing his own repairs to the Strider outfit as it wore throughout the fellowship's journey, just added so many little details that made it seem real. The plastic ring chainmail seemed like it should have become the standard for future movies. Actor's wearing actual armor and carrying real weapons and other items, when other movies struggle so much to make it look like their actors aren't dressed in plastic tubs
The work that went into making LOTR visually real just makes shows like The Rings of Power seem like such half hearted attempts to cash in on the work of better people who cared more about their craft
I was fortunate enough to see these in the theaters as they came out as a young teenager and I will NEVER forget those experiences. They will always be my top 3 movies of all time, everything else I consider my "favorite" movie is just #4 and down. I didnt realize how spoiled I was at the time, but now I do. There will never be anything like that made again. Look at what is produced now in Hollywood. Souless, shallow cash grabs with no passion and no care.
Your enthusiasm is infectious. There's so much love and awe in your voice as you speak about these movies.
Lord of the Rings is amazing but fantasy is such a varied genre, and I wish studios would pay more attention to it and stop running Middle-earth into the ground. Here are some books worth checking out and supporting, though I'm hardly scratching the surface:
-The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie. This is "the next Game of Thrones" that studios are desperately looking for and it's being completely ignored. It's got stronger character work imo, it's grimdark with a cast of questionable protagonists, it's a well contained _complete_ trilogy, and it would be absolutely perfect for a three season show.
-Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson. This is one of the few fantasy worlds that has exceeded the scope and detail of Middle-earth. The main series is ten huge books and they're all batshit insane, it's amazing. This might actually be too "out there" to be adapted but I think, with a lot of time and care, it could work.
-Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe. Okay, this one is a book through and through and it's too weird to be adapted but it's amazing and I think more people should read it.
It makes me so happy that that can be felt and heard!
It took a long time making videos to go from nervous monotone, to over-done "youtuber" voice, to finding a most natural cadence that is more like me at 101% haha. I'm overdoing my natural rhythms and intonations a hair for the sake of presentation. But there's still room for my own emotions to come through :)
Thanks a million for the new recommendations!! I'll be slotting those into my goodreads asap!
@@2leftframes Oh I forgot about this comment haha. You're welcome, man. I recommend First Law to start off with, the other two can be kinda hard to get through lmao. But if you want to challenge yourself, they're extremely rewarding.
I have never, ever seen anything that comes even close to the Lord of the Rings films. These three movies are a true cinematic masterpiece. I truly don't see anything ever coming even close to the quality films, and I say that with much love and respect. The people who made LOTR have made something that will be timeless throughout human history that will (hopefully) be seen by generations years and years from even now. Lord of the Rings shows everything that is good about the human imagination and what can happen when humans come together to create something that is bigger than ourselves. I love movies but I get choked up when discussing LOTR. There is something special that really touches my very soul. I loved this video. It expresses in words far better than I ever could just how wonderful Lord of the Rings still is all these years later that feel as if they were only yesterday.
34:31 (lightning of the beacons) and 36:09 (the ceremony) just seeing those scene, not even hearing the music just gave me chills. I don’t even need the music. It’s in my mind. Heck even some of quotes from the book make me cry! I read the trilogy before I watched the movie. And there are some scenes from the book that weren’t in the movie that I wanted to be in there, but you can’t have everything. Some things are best left to your imagination
I really want to see your take on Rings of Power. Creators were given way more rope than Jackson ever had, and used it to hang themselves. Hiring Tolkien experts, then firing them when the experts did exactly what they were hired for, lying about the show, getting fake fans recite scripted awe in interviews, calling Tolkien fanbase "patently evil" and spending almost a billion dollars creating a show about a psychopatic mary sue, with script so ridden with beginner writer problems, so lacking in any basic qualities of a competent story it feels like a first fanfic written by a teenager who didn't even read or see LOTR.
"And used to hang themselves" lmao dude u made me spit saliva at work and make my coworker think once more im eccentric. What a good one 😂
My plan had been to watch Rings of Power on my own, then watch it again more critically. I think I watched 2 episodes, and just sort of forgot about it? I didn't hate it. But neither did I really care about what was happening. I should probably dust that off to give it another chance
@@2leftframesI would be interested to hear your take
@@2leftframes I got farther than you did, but I didn't make it to the end. I didn't think it was as horrible as some people did. No, it doesn't live up the the movies visually, but that's a pretty tough bar to meet even with the fairly large budget they had to work with and a lot of it was pretty good (visually). I started watching it with the expectation that it wouldn't really be Tolkien, and I was right about that. It really felt like they had set out to replicate everything they thought was especially popular in the movies whether it made sense for a second age story or not (and without any understanding of why they were popular). So we got Hobbits (er, I mean Harfoots) and Gandalf (er, I mean the Stranger) and Eowyn, but as even more of a girl boss (er, I mean Galadriel). Galadriel is probably the worst of these - the real Galadriel was around in the second age, but she was never a warrior. She was, on the other hand, known for her wisdom. So they turned her into an arrogant and rather stupid warrior woman and wrote her husband and daughter out of existence. Which means that there is no Arwen in the third age, sorry Aragorn.
While all that was a big disappointment, I had decided in advance that I would try to give the non-Tolkien story a chance to win me over on its own merits. Unfortunately, the story was so full of holes and so many of the main characters were so unlikable that although there were a few parts that I enjoyed I lost interest long before the end. In general, it seemed like they took a similar approach to plotting to that which they had towards characterization. They had what they thought were cool scenes to build towards, and they didn't worry too much about making sure that any of them made any sense in and of themselves. They worried even less about finding a sensible way to get to them. I think I made it through 4 episodes before I gave up, but that was only because I wanted to make sure I'd given it a fair chance.
@@stephenlaing2152brave of you to walk in this comments section and claim that Jackson’s LotR is “crap.” Brave, and stupid, as that is a patently false statement by any measurement.
34:05
I'm, 8 months late but the answer is that the background OST for this video is from LotR: Battle for Middle Earth 2.
Astonishing original soundtrack that somehow they managed to make it sound as if it was conducted by Howard Shore himself for the movie trilogy!
I was looking for this comment
Over my life I have learned one thing. Regardless of how skilled an artist is (be it musician, director, painter etc.). His magnum opus never comes as a result of careful planning. It always comes from part preparation, part skill, part talent and sheer joy of creating art. But also there is always luck. Even those incredible artists who have many incredible pieces, usually still have 1-2 that just stand above the rest.
For me that is the LotR trilogy. Not even Peter Jackson could replicate what he did on those films. And it's kind of insane to realize the films been filmed a couple of year earlier or later. We would most likely never get the blending of great practical effects with the use of CGI for important scenes.
The movies were my introduction to Middle Earth and eventually fantasy tabletop games, the trilogy is still my all time favourite. We love having an extended edition marathon every now and then
Talk about two birds with one stone.
"We need about two thousand orc swords by next week!"
"We need to film a montage scene of orcs crafting their crude weaponry!"
Peter Jackson - "Why not both?" *shrugs shoulders*
The experts were the only logical choice, they won’t make it look real, that is the real way just in costume which was brilliant.
I watched everything on the Extended Edition DVDs. And I mean literally EVERYTHING. Every film, every commentary on every film, and every single extra. I think I calculated that it was around 100 hours of material or something ridiculous like that (I can't remember, so that might be off a little). I consider it worthwhile because it's the closest I could have come to being part of the huge family of people who worked incessantly for years to bring us these stories. I feel almost as if I'd been there watching the process, and it's what I love most about cinema: the fact that it's the most massive, difficult collaboration anyone can undertake in the world of art. It shows what humans can do when they get together with a plan.
I love how you made an extended edition to your original video lmao
A word of warning, friends: once you watch the Extended Editions of Lord of the Rings, there is *NO* going back to the Theatrical Versions.
I still remember watching LOTR for the first time. I was around 10 years old so never heard of LOTR, my dad said "hey lets watch this new movie Lord of The Rings, its supposed to be good". By the time the movie was over my adrenaline was pumping from the last scene, I was entranced and was so disappointed that the movie ended. I was filled with so much wonderment at the world that I couldnt wait for the next movie to come. Funny you mention Dune because thats the only movie that was able to come close to giving me that feeling of wonder and intrigue that LOTR gave me as a kid, Dune didnt give me as an intense feeling of wonder like LOTR but it did come close. LOTR is a great time to look back on but it is sad knowing that we'll probably never see another movie as monumental and impactful as LOTR but im so freaking glad I was there for all of it. When The Hobbit came out I went to the theatre for first and second movie but it just didnt capture me like LOTR did, I actually fell asleep during both movies.
I never got to experience the lotr release because I was a child but leaving Dune it felt to me like I experienced something similar. The scale, the score the epicness of it all. Dune is a masterpiece, I hope the sequels can live up to it.
this analysis is so good. thanks for making my sunday night
I listened to the books and watched these movies for the first time this year. I went back to watch your video on it aftwerwards, but am watching this one now too. While these movies don't mean a lot to me personally...I can appreciate the craftsmanship and work that went into these so much.
In a comic I am reading, "Fables", there is this character Jack, from the fairytales. Since fame and being remebred translate to power and unkillability to the fairytale characters in that world, he goes to hollywood and makes a movie trilogy on the level of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings in that comic. However I always found that weird, and watching this video now it seems even more unlikely, that someone could just do that if they wanted to.
I'm glad my video helps give some perspective on the scale of this production :)
I've also heard good things about Fables overall! Even if that one storylines seems rather farfetched ;)
This is one of those times where the passion of all involved brought out the best of everyone around them. Shore is a great example of this. Its hard to imagine he would have put so much effort into the soundtrack if he hadn't been blown away by Jacksons drive.
The Lord of the Rings movies were just soo awesome, I'm soo glad I managed to see them all at really nice cinemas and love going back to them every once in a while. You can really tell that they really gave it all and had a good budget to do it properly. Awesome video man
I have never heard a sound track affect the feeling of a movie as much as the LOTR sound track did. Every section of the movie, every people group involved had their own music. It was phenomenal. The best ever.
To summarise: made with love by people who knew the story.
The forced perspective work in these movies is simply jaw-dropping. the complexity and engineering that went into such a simple aspect for a 2 second establishing shot that created so much depth and realism in the scene blows my mind. I wouldn't even know where to start. It's genius. The people who made these movies were geniuses, from top to bottom.
They built the Hobbiton set and vegetation plantings and then left it all to age naturally for 12 months for the lived-in look.
The fact that you released a version of this video only to later release an extended version a few months later is certainly on topic
Theyre the only movies i could watch on repeat and never get tired.
Whenever theyre on while zapping on the tv my wife already knows were watching it till the end (thankfully she loves them just as much as i do 😂)
I went to watch all three with my son and brother in law and yes they were true cinematic dreams not only in story and movie making but also a true treat for the cinema audience and when we got the extended versions,well they were nothing short of the stuff of dreams when it comes to me personally as every since the late 1970’s and having the special edition of Close Encounters Of The Third Kind I’ve been on a personal quest to obtain,watch and adore as many directors/extended cuts of movies as i can get my hands on and in nearly every case they turn out to be better for having the extra or extended scenes put back in. The Punisher extended cut is a prime example of how good a fuller longer version of a movie that fills in all the missing pieces can be
Will never forget the wonder of reading “The Hobbit” for the first time back in 1st grade and being introduced to Tolkien’s world. It’s been 30 years since then and to see TLOTR come out in the first year of high school was something special.
Great video, 2 Left Frames. And thank you for reminding me to appreciate the Lord of the Rings trilogy. These movies had always been my favourite of all time and I had been a fan of them for a very long time.
One surprisingly important thing about filming all three films together as a single unit is that you have only one contract with all of the actors and people. Most projects, when you get around to making film two and then film three, the lead actors want more and more money and your budget blows out. But by filming as a single entity, Jackson probably saved $100-200 million on increasing actors wages. And it also stops everyone trying to gouge you for more money with every movie. If done as three different movies, I doubt that it would ever have been completed. It also helped that it was made in New Zealand. This meant that the Hollywood unions did not get to tell everyone what they were and were not allowed to do. This means that they could often get three times as many camera set ups shot in a single day. Throw in that the whole country was behind the project and it was a work of love, not money, means it can never be repeated.
@@ShadowDragon-cw7wb -During Lord of the Rings, their were unions, but they were controlled by the Australian unions. I remember the unions going on strike and when the interviewer asked the head of the union what they wanted, she had to admit that she didn't know. AQ lot of the things the unions were asking for were totally impossible and they knew it. So why were they asking for them? Because that is what the Aussie unions wanted them to ask for.
A work of love *&* money.
Nobody worked on that for free nor should they. Regardless Peter Jackson is awesome, LoTR is awesome, unions are awesome.
It was a work of love, but they made a lot of money doing it. Which is how it should be.
Absolutely epic story, made by passionate artists ❤
Excited to see you break down these monstrous projects, that need to be properly honored.
This trilogy will never be topped in my opinion and it’s just the best no other word for it just the best
The very existence of these movies, let alone their marvelous high quality, blows my mind to this day.
Extended Edition version of this video?!!!!
You bet!!
@@2leftframes 😁😁😁😁😁
@@2leftframes can't you upload it in a higher res? looks like 480P right now
@@StagnantMizu I wouldn't go *that* far. But it definitely lost some quality in the transition. I had to work with pre-rendered video in order to alter it, and this is the consequence :(
If I ever have to do that style of video transitioning again, I'll more heavily experiment with how to avoid such dramatic losses in video quality. My apologies that it took such a notable quality hit
@@2leftframes ah unfortunate; still high quality content though, keep it going!
Rewatching these movies now in 4K home theater setup. Jaw dropping stuff!
Within the first minute I recognised that the soundtrack to this video was from The Battle For Middle-Earth 2 video game, which featured new music composed by EA Games, and since they no longer have the rights to produce any LOTR games the property is kind of in a legal void, so it's very unlikely EA can copyright claim it any more. Good thinking!
13th Warrior was dope tho, and I'm willing to die on that hill.
@@stephenlaing2152 That would have been the worst LOTR in history. Dude is a walking Ed Hardy jean. 300 is meh and the Znyder cut is the biggest "sniff my own farts" piece of media I have ever seen.
Jackson, Walsh and Boyens really were in the last chance saloon with New Line. It was their final option, essentially bottom of their list of realistic hopefuls. They took the meeting really just as a way of ticking the final box and being able to say “we tried our best” before flying home in defeat.
I am proud to have been the 3000th viewer who liked this video 😊
The existence of the LOTR movie trilogy is indeed a miracle! And it has aged incredibly well! 11 months ago we had the dubious privilege to be able to compare it with Amazon's " Rings Of Power", which was allegedly the most expensive tv production ever😂 This experience left me speechless - but not a good way! I started to wonder if Amazon's "ROP" may have been a brilliant money laundering scheme😂 Peter Jackson's LOTR trilogy is of course not perfect. But Peter Jackson managed to create a version of Middle Earth with all of it's wonders and fantastic creatures, which felt absolutely credible. Peter Jackson might as well have taken his crew to Middle Earth. I heard that he even managed to hire the last of the once magnificent race of the balrogs, who made an honest living as a firefighter in a small town in New Zealand.
I honestly cannot imagine that a remake which has actually been planned by Amazon, will be able to create the same magic!
And it's true that Peter Jackson himself wasn't able to repeat the miracle with his very flawed Hobbit trilogy. And personally I agree with Viggo Mortensen: I like the first LOTR movie best.
Suprised to see you only have just over 4k subs when quality of this video is fantastic. Well done.
I believe that Tolkien was inspired by God, and I believe the same of Peter Jackson and his crew to make the film adaptation. Nothing else explains the miracle of how these works were made.
Tolkien was a devout Christian. His works undeniably mirror biblical teachings and history.
@@stephenlaing2152ah, but he didn’t say J*hova. No need to stone him… yet.
Too much pipe smoke.
God could have done a bit more inspiring when it came time to make the Hobbit. He dropped the ball on that one a bit.
@@ProfessorPescatrue lol
Sales of Tolkien increased by 1000% after LOTR.
Jackson's formula - honor Tolkien, follow the lore, and don't insert your own politics - clearly worked.
Amazon's formula - contradict the lore, insert modern identity politics, and delete all negative reviews - clearly failed.
Denis Villeneuve is trying to do something similar with Dune, he's done a great job on the first film. Can't wait for part 2 in November.
I love the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings movies! So much emotions and nostalgia! They are a constant touchstone in my life. I love them dearly ♥️
My favorite trilogy by far!
Thanks for this assessment. I haved loved this story since I was very young and Mum got it out of the Library every year to read aloud to us kids - it hadn't even come out in paperback yet, so you can imagine how long that is! I was deeply sceptical when I heard movies were being made of the books but after having seen the few pathetic efforts thus far can you blame me?As a result I only saw the last of the three at the cinema. My favourite way to watch this is watch the extended editions in a single day, start in the mid-morning and serve the meals served in the films (a full English brekkie for protein and energy for over 12 hours - home-made minestrone soup for lunch (the little kids arriving at Edoras) with a chicken salad for dinner (yep, that scene from Return of the King) along with appropriate snacks). I loved the section of your video regarding the music as I think this is the best soundtrack ever and I have always loved soundtracks. I believe that the music, along with the locations counted like the tenth and eleventh members of the Fellowship!!. Thanks. I thoroughly enjoyed this.
Lord of the Rings is the one thing where I can't decide if I like the book or movies more!!
That's how I feel about Jurassic Park. It's okay to like both
To quote an elementary-aged teacher of all things Spanish: Porqué no los dos?
I just saw them all in theaters with the extended versions getting rereleased for the first time and it was a truly once in a lifetime trilogy of movies made with so much love and care! I already want to rewatch them and im reading the books right now too
The fact that mainstream was positive on lotr is what amazes me. In a time when fantasy was "pretty gay dude". I'm so happy to have lotr hit in my teens. Epic time to be alive. Imagine 18 yr old me, with my girlfriend in the theater and i've got my hand around her neck like that guy in the stadium seating meme, "babe, get ready for this. this horse is badass."
Ohhh please make this in to a series!
It would be AWESOME!
Amazing movies, lotr trilogy is some of the best movies to date.
And there goes my Saturday, time for a rewatch.
Of course i recognize the music in the background, it's from one of my favorite games of all time! the one and only Lord Of The Rings The Battle For Middle Earth 2! An amazing game which i highly recommend to any lotr fan!
A massive W for using BFME II OST as the BGM for this video. Best lotr game ever.
I am proud to say I was there when this came out. I witnessed film history. We were talking about this in middle school. This was to us what Star Wars was to the kids of the late 70's and early 80's. I feel kids of today will never know how good this time was.
Where would I go if I wanted to find all the behind the scenes footage in one place? Is there such a repository?
Great vid btw. Loved it.
I always watched them on my boxset dvds haha.
A lot of them are uploaded directly on youtube. But I think if you want the *full*, high quality collection, purchasing is easily your best bet. The next most likely to have them **all** would be... less than legal means ;)
Did you think I REALLY wouldn't recognize that BGM you used for this video??
It is the awesome OST of the AWESOME game Battle for Middle-Earth II.
Hours upon hours of my childhood spent playing it and the prequel and expansion games.
Hey, VFX Artist here! Really loved your video except for some points along the end I think you missed, which is fine because many people lack the knowledge behind VFX and often the rhetoric is that lots of CGI = not good for movies. It's important to note that poor CGI is MORE a reflection of POORLY PLANNED and bad FILMMAKING. Strong PREproduction ALSO reflects in good POSTproduction. People underestimate how much good CGI relies on well filmed scenes, good planning, referenced props even if they are replaced with CGI, etc. I think that's what made the CGI successful even though it was not very realistic yet, there was an intent to help the CGI Artists rather than seeing it as 'magic' or a 'bandaid'. This is why you will see some movies in that era with awful CGI, or why the Hobbit despite being much later having poor CGI - it's because it was poorly planned filmmaking and I also guarantee you that the turnarounds for those CGI were ludicrously short. I think that in the current landscape of pumping out quick CGI blockbusters with barely any time for us VFX Artists to refine our work, that level of care seen in the LOTR films will be hard to replicate again. It's also why the VFX in the latest Avatar looks great, people like to argue that it's because some scenes are 'real' but 99% of the time they are composited over with CGI - I have friends who worked on many of those contested shots. It's because the visual development and preproduction was truly fleshed out with an understanding of VFX.
Well said! I've grown up watching behind the scenes on as many movies as possible, and eagerly eat up things like "VFX Artists React" series from Corridor Digital. While I certainly don't *know* everything about how films are made, I like to think I have an above-average awareness of how that pipeline looks, and how often the production is to blame! I regret that I may have framed anything in this video that made it sounds like the artists themselves were to blame for any of it.
I have other videos talking about the MCU, which obviously has an increasingly rocky reputation for their CGI. I'm FULLY aware that is the fault of poor/lazy planning, cost cutting, short turnarounds, and excluding key people with the know-how from the actual filming process. In those videos I default to laying blame on the studios - as VFX studios are STACKED with talent who can create movie magic when given the time and resources! Thank you for expanding on that and taking the time to further educate myself and others. Cheers!
@@2leftframes Thanks for taking the time to reply! To reiterate I really enjoyed your entire video and it didn't sound like you were blaming the artists at all. It's just I have seen many many videos that gloss over this fact about CGI or don't mention it EXPLICITLY, which sort of continues this rhetoric about CGI. We don't expect everyone to know about it and not every creator is as passionate about VFX as you seem to be, so it sort of sucks to hear in the majority of film essays out there.
Also to be frank many VFX Artists are not huge fans of Corridor Digital 😅as a lot of their takes are wrong or they sensationalize mistakes or tech to the detriment of the industry - I do like episodes where they have actual CG Supes on though. I recently had a shot of mine broken down incorrectly xD But they are certainly accessible entertainment and very good at that! I would actually recommend watching breakdowns or interviews from vfx houses themselves (Weta, DNEG, Framestore etc.) - unfortunately you are very correct in that films rarely release hours long behind the scenes for anything anymore which is a shame.
Keep up the great work - Your passion and your research very much shows in the work you do!
@@maryfaceeggo The guest appearances on CD are often the most informative episodes! Although I've definitely assumed they are more or less correctly analyzing shots when they tackle any of that themselves.
A video dispelling common myths or misconceptions on VFX production, with real industry examples and insight, could be really neat! If you have any interest (or the ability with NDAs an whatnot) in chatting directly about any of that, it could be a lot of fun! DMing me on Twitter is probably easiest? 2_left_thumbs.
No pressure! Thanks again for the chat :)
@@2leftframes wow that's such a cool idea! I'll try to contribute what I can, I am very passionate about this topic! I'm actually more on IG as I'm not active on Twitter at all but I'll msg you my user on Twitter :)